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OXFORD -- Welcome back to what is quickly becoming a Clarion-Ledger tradition: the 75 Most Important Rebels.

If you're not familiar, each year we countdown the players who matter to the success of Ole Miss football. This is not a straight talent-evaluation: role matters, which means a true special-teamer (long-snapper Will Denny, for example) is more valuable than the third-team left tackle.

No. 9: Evan Engram

Position: Tight end

Year: Sophomore

Height/weight: 6-foot-3, 217 pounds

In 2013: When Ole Miss signed three tight ends in the class of 2013, Engram was generally considered the least ready to play immediately and in need of a redshirt. But A.J. Jackson never made it to campus and Christian Morgan suffered a knee injury that ended his football career, and Ole Miss was in the position of handing the No. 1 tight end job to Engram. It worked out more than OK: in seven games before suffering an ankle injury Engram emerged as Ole Miss' go-to receiver across the middle of the field. He had a 64-yard touchdown against Southeast Missouri, and then another score the next week at Texas. He also had a touchdown catch against Texas A&M. Him running a short post across the middle on read-options is a go-to throw for quarterback Bo Wallace, one that led to big catches last year. After returning for the Music City Bowl Engram finished with 21 receptions for 268 yards and three touchdowns.

Offseason: The fact that Engram returned for the bowl game was a good indicator of his health, and it was never a problem in the spring. Ole Miss does want Engram to gain weight (the reason why he was considered the biggest project of the tight ends in the first place), but his long arms make him a strong blocker on the edge already. What gaining weight would do is allow Engram to be in the box more, where he can be an H-back that rounds up to block second-level defenders.

In 2014: Ole Miss threw the ball to the tight end in the five games that Engram missed. Once, in a five-game stretch that included the Rebels scoring a combined 20 points against Missouri and Mississippi State. I asked Wallace how different that stretch of games would have been with a healthy Engram and this is what he said: "It would have been different because it changed our offense so much. We had to do so many different things, and were able to disguise things so much better with Evan because we could flex him out or bring him in."

It's easy to classify Engram as a "new" breed of tight end, but the tight end that can line up in the slot is not that new -- Jimmy Graham is a five-year NFL player, and he's hardly the first to bend the traditional limits of the position. What Engram is, really, is a versatile piece that's a willing blocker and reliable target (he caught two-thirds of passes thrown his way).